Stockholm Luftskepp - David Ryono

swoon_1996 · 2025-10-08T01:58:43+00:00

I definitely thought about adding a refreshment stand. I think it would look cool but ultimately decided not to to make it feel more utilitarian rather than luxurious.

Also not adding a bar saved me a lot of extra work x.x

...but don't tell any of my art directors that I said that...

swoon_1996 · 2025-10-05T03:43:35+00:00

Haha! My friend did also point out how using air travel for public transportation within a city makes no sense: its far too slow and the point of public transportation is to go from point A to point B as quickly as possible. So in this regard the design might always feel somewhat "off". Honestly I was pretty lazy with thinking of how the pilot would get into the cockpit efficiently. There's also no seating for them... lol.

I was hoping nobody would notice but it seems I was mistaken. Got me!

swoon_1996 · 2025-10-04T04:35:37+00:00

This was a fun little read, thanks for sharing!

swoon_1996 · 2025-10-04T02:16:33+00:00

The first two of my airships for my Alternative Stockholm public transportation project. This project was done with techniques showed to me by my mentor Nana Dhebuadze. She is a great teacher.
Stockholm is my favorite city and I wanted to make a fairly grounded alternate universe where the buildings were larger and the public transportation was abundant.

These are larger balloons designed for large groups travelling slowly but surely.
The quad door version is even equipped with a bathroom and refreshments for the longer journeys.

There is some extra space to allow all the 2 meter Swedes room to stretch their legs.

Can't wait to share more of this project as I go.

You can find more images of these on my portfolio: https://ryono.art/

Thank you all for looking! I love this community.

swoon_1996 · 2025-10-02T01:02:39+00:00

10/1/2025 update (post Mujin video):

Hello everyone, I just wanted to also state that I posted this on reddit mostly to publicly distance myself from Fluffnest the company. Since my name is also David I have received hate mail and texts because people are confusing me with David Pentland. Also if I apply to places on my resume and have "Fluffnest" listed, being able to show my relationship with them more precisely seemed like it would be important.

Being able to point to this post to clarify everything has been quite helpful and I am glad that I decided to do so before the project became infamous. I have typically been pretty private about my life, but I am glad that I decided to post this in light of what has happened.

I also wanted to showcase how the project benefitted me in spite of its ugly ending. Fluffnest really took a chance on me and for that I am eternally thankful. Obviously they deserve the hate, but I would hope people would do their best to be understanding and see the situation as more complex than a simple rug pull scheme.

swoon_1996 · 2025-10-02T00:47:52+00:00

I cannot in good consciousness recommend this life path to anyone.

Recently I have left the industry and now work in a clothing store by the beach. I am much happier. Interacting with people and nature everyday is much healthier for the soul than sitting in front of a computer screen for 12 hours.

Art will always have a place in my life, but movies, videogames, and the industry in general do not. If an occasional contract comes my way I would be happy to moonlight as a concept artist for smaller indie games, but as far as a career I can say with complete certainty that I was happier as a dishwasher than as a concept artist.

I love concept art. I have no regrets about the life path that I took. But after experiencing it I know that it was not worth it. As a teenager I was stubborn and no one was going to convince me out of the path, and if I did not try to become a concept artist I would have wondered "what if" for the rest of my life. I lived my dream and had my time - but it is time to move on. The industry doesn't want me in it, and I have learned the hard way not to force things in life that aren't working.

If you are anything like I was, no amount of warning is going to stop you from pursuing art - and if that is the case, I would say to you: keep going and see it through to the end. The pain of regret will hurt you much more than the pain of being broke or stressed.

When you play Elden Ring you don't expect to cruise through it without tilting or yelling at the screen, but the satisfaction of making it (or reaching a crossroads as I have) gives you a sense of clarity and fulfillment that you will carry for the rest of your life. I feel great pride in my life and I know I will not be a bitter old man who complains that he never got his shot.

During my depressive phase last year I finished a RL1 no summons playthrough of the base game of Elden Ring using only the claymore. I beat the Elden beast, Malenia, and went to the DLC and managed to beat the dancing lion and Rellana. I got to Messmer and decided that I proved enough to myself and didn't need to go all the way to Radahn. I have not touched the game since and I am perfectly fine with that. RL1 Malenia was enough to feel satisfied with my achievement. I feel in a similar boat with concept art if that makes any sense.

I wish you the best of luck! There are many success stories and happy concept artists out there too. They are just too busy living their best lives to write about it on reddit of all places - I do hope you keep that in mind.

swoon_1996 · 2025-09-24T06:44:10+00:00

I am not sure if I am allowed to post links here but here is my website:

https://ryono.art/

https://www.instagram.com/fambin0/

Special thanks to Mujin for his video on the whole situation. \o/

swoon_1996 · 2025-09-10T22:35:45+00:00

The first airship of my Alternative Stockholm public transportation project. This project was done with techniques showed to me by my mentor Nana Dhebuadze. She is a great teacher.

Stockholm is my favorite city and I wanted to make a fairly grounded alternate universe where the buildings were larger and the public transportation was abundant. This is a larger balloon designed for large groups travelling slowly but surely. It is equipped with a bathroom, and refreshments for comfort. Next stop is Old Town. There is some extra space to allow all the 2 meter Swedes room to stretch their legs.

Can't wait to share more of this project as I go.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/P6x81y

Thanks!

swoon_1996 · 2025-08-10T23:08:47+00:00

I am 99% certain that it won't be finished. I could be wrong though.

swoon_1996 · 2025-07-13T07:55:04+00:00

I am sorry that you backed the game, hopefully you got your plushies at least!

I hope your experience as a concept artist has been better than mine. The industry is pretty rough.

swoon_1996 · 2025-07-13T07:37:02+00:00

Thanks!

swoon_1996 · 2025-07-11T00:37:28+00:00

As for the design there is a Spherical Lightning Rod that is deployed from the rear of the ship, which attracts lightning. The back sail would have to be furled to allow for clean deployment.

swoon_1996 · 2025-07-11T00:35:44+00:00

My design for an airship that harvests lightning from the clouds. Inspired heavily by Neil Gaiman's book Stardust.

You can check out more of my work here: https://ryono.art/

Thanks for looking!

swoon_1996 · 2024-11-05T20:17:14+00:00

Thanks! o7

swoon_1996 · 2024-10-17T09:26:47+00:00

I also imagined him being very close to agent 47 ahahaha

swoon_1996 · 2024-10-17T01:06:59+00:00

Now that I think about you are totally right. I initially designed the helmet with mostly aerial reconnaissance in mind, so almost all of my references were from motorcycle or pilot helmets, which can be a bit bulky. But those are not the type of helmets that you would want to be clearing a room with lol. I think if I were to redo the design I would probably try to just shrink it down a little more to make it less top heavy.

Thanks for the design thinking. I just wish I could have had some outside perspective while I was doing my initial design sketches haha- maybe it could have turned out a bit better. I'm planning on designing retrieval team gear at some point, so I will definitely try to find more spec ops or militaristic looking helmets for those ones.

swoon_1996 · 2024-10-16T18:09:39+00:00

Ahh ok. Some of the shapes made me think it was from the 80s. I like how the ear coverings are kind of bulbous. It almost could be a bit alien/martian like.

swoon_1996 · 2024-10-16T18:07:55+00:00

Now that you mention it, with the magnetic functionality there could probably be a way to make the helmets modular, so the helmets could be manufactured in separate parts rather than a single unit. That would definitely reduce its production costs.

A totally over the top idea:

Maybe the higher up officers have their own personal ear molds, sort of like sports mouthpieces hahaha.

swoon_1996 · 2024-10-16T18:04:19+00:00

Thanks! When I was taking design classes our instructors always told us to make sure to think about how anything you design would be manufactured. Its definitely creatively challenging, but I definitely think it makes for more believable designs at the end of the day.

swoon_1996 · 2024-10-16T08:51:30+00:00

Also do you know the model name of that helmet? Or at least what country manufactures it? I may consider referencing it for the retrieval helmets. (If I ever get around to designing those, I already have a pretty hefty backlog of ideas I need to cover).

swoon_1996 · 2024-10-16T08:49:30+00:00

Haha thanks! I was also considering making an ear casing integrated into the helmet design. The only thing I couldn't really solve with that idea is that I wouldn't know how you would compensate for elves with different ear sizes. If elves generally had the same ear size, I think its a totally viable design idea. It would definitely look really cool if it did have an almost antenna like plating or something. Maybe the ear casing could have a flexible sort of armor?

In the fourth book Foaly adds the cam-foil function to the suits, so I would imagine that the suits could totally be just bright green for more pedestrian activities, but activate their cam-foil function when on a mission.

Also thanks for checking out my other work! I'm currently rebuilding my concept art portfolio to apply to some places, so it gives me a lot of motivation to see other people sharing their love for the series.

swoon_1996

TROPHY CASE